


The Future Might Still Be Orange

by the_rck



Category: Naruto
Genre: Age and experience, Gen, Introspection, Multiple versions of characters, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-27 02:30:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20940821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rck/pseuds/the_rck
Summary: Haruno Sakura, Hatake Kakashi, and Senju Tsunade, the three of them probably make the oddest team in Konoha's history, but they cover each other's weak spots. Tsunade would never have assigned them to a mission together, but that's more because she'd never have thought to put herself on a covert op, not after she took the hat.They weren't the only choice. They probably weren't the best choice.Except that Naruto trusted all three of them to take care of each other. Now, it's too late for him to change his mind. Or possibly, coming at it from the other side, it's too early for him to change his mind. Ideally, he'll never realize that his opinion mattered at all.





	The Future Might Still Be Orange

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fencesit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fencesit/gifts).

> This is extremely handwavy on points of the later Naruto canon. I just couldn't let go of the idea of what Tsunade's knowledge and experience would mean if she could take it backward in time.

Haruno Sakura, Hatake Kakashi, and Senju Tsunade, the three of them probably make the oddest team in Konoha's history, but they cover each other's weak spots. Tsunade would never have assigned them to a mission together, but that's more because she'd never have thought to put herself on a covert op, not after she took the hat. 

They weren't the only choice. They probably weren't the best choice.

Except that Naruto trusted all three of them to take care of each other. Now, it's too late for him to change his mind. Or possibly, coming at it from the other side, it's too early for him to change his mind. Ideally, he'll never realize that his opinion mattered at all.

Possibly, Tsunade ought to feel bad about not helping her past self heal and become a better person. She's pretty sure that Naruto expected her to prioritize that, but the Legendary Sucker and her alcohol fueled foolishness make too good a cover for Tsunade's own travels. Tsunade will be able to remove more obstacles if everyone else is utterly certain that she can't be the one responsible. She'd prefer a different way to save lives, but honestly, she's got zero investment in trying to reform most S-class assholes. It's not part of her skill set, and really, it would be an inefficient use of their resources.

Maybe Naruto could have pulled it off, but she doubts it. There's a reason that no one even considered having him be part of the team. They told him it was because he still might manage to solve everything in the future, but it was mostly because Naruto didn't-- doesn't, won't ever-- understand triage. Since coming back in time, Tsunade's killed a lot of people that Naruto had never even heard of.

Tsunade figures that kidnapping a teenage Hatake Kakashi as her assistant entirely balances every sin she has ever committed. She'd thought that the adult Kakashi was exaggerating about how bad he was. He really, really wasn't. Tsunade hasn't killed him yet. She won't. She thinks he's starting to suspect that she lied about the long term undercover mission, but she's also 100% certain that he's seen enough to understand that she's serious when she tells him that Madara murdered Namikaze Minato.

She has plans for what to do with the brat if he tries to escape. She's not hauling him along with her because it's good for him or fun for her. It's just much easier for her Kakashi to pass as his younger self if there's no chance anyone's going to have a chance to compare them. Gray hair isn't a sign of age for an Hatake, and the masks, both cloth and ANBU, hide a lot.

Besides, young Kakashi is almost as good at murdering people as Tsunade is. Older Kakashi understands the political bullshit currently going on in Konoha and has room to play with it in ways that Tsunade never could, not even if she went back to the village as herself.

Sakura has it easiest and hardest as far as creating her own identity. Tsunade's Sakura is so very clearly an adult that no one will connect her to her younger self, an infant still learning to crawl. The pink hair is noticeable and not particularly common, but it's a lot easier to hide than a Sharingan is or than Tsunade's personal... style is. 

Right now, Sakura's passing as a distant Hatake cousin, a civilian with some medical training who's come to Konoha to make sure that young Kakashi eats his broccoli and isn't murdered in the night by something that grew in his uncleaned shower. Her presence has given him a reason not to let ANBU devour his entire life.

Sakura's dancing on the skinny branches, but neither Tsunade nor Kakashi could get close to baby Naruto or befriend Hinata's mother or be present but both invisible and obviously harmless in the ways that a pretty, civilian girl from the Right Family can be. Sakura's trying to catch all of the smaller tragedies and machinations that Kakashi and Tsunade don't have time for or never noticed. 

Sakura's also doing her best to sneak bits of scientific knowledge and rigorous thinking into the general civilian world where shinobi paranoia will have a harder time erasing them. She's financing her own operations, mostly public facing and charitable, entirely through small innovations that she licenses to certain entirely civilian businesses. None are things shinobi consider secrets. None need chakra to create or to use-- a better loom, a way of making milk last longer, an herb out of Rain that makes a sharp green sauce, a red dye that can be made with fungus growing on trees just outside the Forest of Death. 

The money she spends is noticeable enough and mundanely traceable enough that, when Kakashi vanishes for days or weeks at a time, Hatake Sakura seldom spends an evening alone. All of the ninja clans have a few youngsters they're happy to throw at her. The established civilian families and guilds simply invite her to more general gatherings as it's the best way to get her to ask questions that lead to new possibilities. No one thinks she's a genius. She's just practical and good at managing a household.

None of it is what Sakura wanted for her life, but she never complains. She's also discrete enough that, while everyone believes she has lovers, no one ever quite figures out who they might be.

Tsunade doesn't think that any of the three of them are getting any. She's just less sure about that with Sakura, so she kind of hopes. Sakura's still so very young. She should have some joy in her life, something that isn't about the mission.

Except that Tsunade and Kakashi are mostly dealing with people who've already started walking their paths to Hell. Sakura's seeing a lot of the ones who haven't yet.

Tsunade's not sure that's a good enough reason for Sakura having hurled a tiny, angry Kabuto at her with instructions to keep him on a leash if that was what it took to keep him the hell out of Konoha. The child looks a little too much like the man he will grow up to be. Tsunade probably would have killed him with a touch if she'd seen him on the street somewhere.

Because of Sakura, Tsunade is teaching him. Tsunade is a ninja who knows that Kabuto can become magnificently and ruthlessly effective. She's almost certain that she can give him enough affection to hold his loyalty.

Kabuto is Sakura's backup plan. He'll kill Danzo if the older Kakashi can't manage it. Sakura's not wrong that neither she nor Tsunade can get close enough for long enough. The Kabuto who served Orochimaru could remove at least three of Danzo's eyes before the paranoid old fuck even noticed.

Tsunade also considers Kabuto their backup so that Sakura won't have to kill the Third. There's no doubt that Sakura will try if she decides that it needs doing; Tsunade just isn't sure she'll be able to share a drink or a meal with her apprentice after. Tsunade still loves her sensei that much. She's already forgiven Kabuto for things he'll never do, and that will make it easier to forgive him doing things she asks him to take care of.

Sakura and Kakashi no longer respect the Third Hokage. They're comparing him to his successors and finding him wanting. He's necessary, still, because there really isn't anyone else, but they've both figured out how damning it is that neither of them can come up with even a single strong candidate for taking the hat. Minato's qualifications had been obvious, but there ought to have been at least four people almost as capable available to serve as Godaime, even in the immediate aftermath of the Kyuubi's attack.

That there weren't meant that Sensei and Minato had both fucked up. In the future they'd come from, Tsunade had still been playing catchup on that. Too many genin and chunin died before anyone knew who they could become. The ones with obvious promise ended up sucked into the depths of ANBU, never to emerge again. 

Oddly, neither death nor oaths of unquestioning and anonymous obedience produce powerful political leaders. Minato hadn't had a lot of time, but surely he'd noticed the problem?

Kakashi might be Hokage again some day. Sakura never will be. Tsunade believes Sakura would be better at it than Kakashi-- either version-- or than Tsunade's younger self. Sakura has a clarity that Kakashi and Tsunade lack. Sakura knew what she was giving up while Tsunade and Kakashi only knew what they had already lost.

Since coming back, Sakura has killed more inconvenient witnesses than Kakashi has. Tsunade worries about that part. It's not that Tsunade doesn't trust Sakura's judgment or self-control. Tsunade just wishes that Sakura weren't so very, very young and that Kakashi wasn't relying on his student to clean up that sort of mess. Kakashi's not wrong to because Sakura's methods require the merest whisper of applied chakra and leave traces very few people could detect.

Tsunade can, both versions of her. Shizune can. Young Kakashi can, and soon, Kabuto will be able to. Orochimaru might be able to, but he won't think to look because it's an unimaginative use of power that's more about precision than about creativity or strength. Even if he does notice, he'll assume Tsunade is responsible and try blackmail first.

Jiraiya may already have noticed. Tsunade doesn't entirely understand the whole Sage thing he has going on, and she doesn't have a plan for him, not yet.

Tsunade doubts that she'll be able to talk Orochimaru into being sensible, but she'd kind of like the excuse to try. She doesn't want to kill him. She will if she has to. Orochimaru's on her list, just a long way down it. 

Jiraiya's a different sort of problem, one less easily resolved. Seduction would probably work, but it would be a much deeper betrayal than poisoning him would be because they'd both know what she was doing to him. Tsunade isn't sure she could forgive herself for that or that she should.

She still thinks about what she'll do after this, assuming she survives. She could see a distillery or a perfumery or-- Maybe one of her students will have cute kids who will learn all the wrong words from her and later grow up to have kids of their own. Having Orochimaru and Jiraiya beside her while she watches those kids play would be so very, very nice.


End file.
